Following a mid-term review of our Strategic Plan 2024-29, we have decided to implement three shifts in how we work, to ensure we maximise our impact at a time of urgent need in mental health:
Grant making → Change-making
Funding → Co-funding
Local impact → Impact in and beyond south London
We have also consolidated two of our children and young people-related goals into one to more effectively deliver on our ambitions in this area.
Our goals
We want people affected by psychosis to have better outcomes from treatment and care, have a say in what those outcomes are, and what they need to achieve them. That means better access to the right care for them, and support in the community to allow them to recover or live well with their illness.
Why this goal is important
- Psychosis and psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are some of the most life-altering health conditions, impacting employment, social and family relationships, and physical health.
- There is a strong correlation between poverty, racism, trauma, and severe mental illness. Black men and women are disproportionately negatively impacted both in prevalence and in their experience of mental health services and treatment.
- Southeast London has some of the highest rates of psychosis in Europe.
How we will get there
- Support the trialing and development of innovative approaches and interventions to support adults living with psychosis.
- Build the capacity of the voluntary & community sector ecosystem supporting people with psychosis in south London.
- Extend the reach and impact of proven innovations in care for people living with psychosis; and share learnings from our funding.
- Develop a network of aligned funders who want to support and extend improvements to mental health services for people affected by psychosis.
- Support development of neighbourhood health models in south London that address the needs of people living with severe mental illness.
We want children and young people aged 10-19 who are most at risk of developing mental illness that endures into adulthood, to get the support they need in the right way for them at an early enough stage to make a lifelong impact.
Why this goal is important
- There is an increase in the complexity of children and young people’s lives, “fragmentation in health and care system and a lack of time and resources for collaboration.
- 50% of mental health difficulties are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24. The views and needs of the most at-risk children and young people are particularly poorly understood or considered. Trust and stigma are major issues for many of these children and young people.
- There is a need to reimagine how the most at-risk children and young people are supported given the increase in demand for mental health services, current waiting list times and thresholds for support.
How we will get there
- Support partnership projects to test new ways to prevent the mental health needs of the most at-risk children and young people aged 10 to 19 from escalating. Identify, understand, develop and share the emerging impact, particularly on groups experiencing racism and discrimination.
- Share our learnings to improve the mental health of at-risk children and young people in south London and beyond.
- Develop and convene a network of aligned funders who want to support and extend work that will improve the mental health of children and young people facing the biggest challenges including racism and discrimination.
- Ensure King’s Maudsley Partnership can deliver on the vision to transform children and young people’s mental health in the longer term and influence national and global change.
We want South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to achieve its aim of providing outstanding care and support to all its communities. Our funding can enable staff to deliver ideas for cross-organisational improvement, provide scope for experimentation that improves care, and make enhancements beyond what the NHS is able to provide.
Why this goal is important
- NHS mental health services are responding to greater and more complex mental health need with very limited resources.
- NHS staff want to innovate, instigate change in patient care, and support and learn from each other but often do not have the resource to do this.
- We are the largest mental health NHS charity and can support the kinds of projects that might not be possible in other trusts.
How we will get there
- Support a suite of transformation projects to improve the Trust’s clinical effectiveness
- Develop and fund work addressing racial inequities in the mental health care provided in south London, building on learning from the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework
- Support staff teams in the Trust, encouraging them to lead their own smaller scale projects to enhance everyday care
- Enhance opportunities for the Trust’s service users to access holistic support to aid their recovery, supporting stronger links between the Trust, the voluntary & community sector and the community
- Share learnings and platform expertise from our funding and partnership with the Trust across the mental health community
Authenticity is important to us. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is fundamental to our mission, and we are as committed to providing an environment that supports equity and good mental health as an employer, as we are a grant funder.
Why this goal is important
- The Charity has grown quickly and is still developing. – We are committed to creating a culture that attracts and retains staff and enables them to develop into an effective team.
- Our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a visible focus of our change model. As we grow, we need to maintain momentum and focus in this area to retain our credibility.
- Becoming the best organisation we can requires us to understand and reflect the communities we serve, considering diversity, equity, and inclusion at every stage of our thought process and work.
- We are a learning organisation continuously assessing what has gone well and what hasn’t and drawing insight from outside the Charity to inform our work.
What we will do
- Embed accountability for our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion values across every aspect of our operations.
- Strengthen our position as an open and trusted funder and enable collaboration with people with lived‑experience across our decision making.
- Enhance governance, organisational resilience and effectiveness
We have a responsibility to steward our funds effectively for the future, working with others to increase available funds, and to extend our impact by amplifying the learning from the work we fund.
Why this goal is important
- We need to strike a balance between delivering impact now and ensuring we can support people who experience mental illness in the decades to come. We make decisions about our investments and ambitions for the medium- and longer-term grant giving against the backdrop of major pressure on and fluctuation in national economies, increasing international conflict and growing urgency for climate action.
- This plan contains commitment to two major activities new to the Charity – fundraising beyond our partnership with KCL and influencing and amplification of learning from our work. Success in either of these areas requires setting the foundations for that change that will continue well into the next strategic period.
What we will do
- Develop philanthropic partnerships that scale proven innovations and extend impact beyond south London
- Continue the implementation of our fundraising strategy and explore new avenues for income generation through impact investment.
- Responsibly and ethically maximise the use and value of our entire portfolio to enable sustainable funding of our grant programmes
Read more on how we will achieve our Strategy
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Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
As an organisation we are working to achieve positive change together with those who share our values and commitment.
